Lack Wisdom? 4 Ways to Seek Wisdom from God
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Do you lack wisdom? You’re in luck. One of the benefits of being a Christian is that you can seek wisdom from God. But what if you’ve never thought about asking God for help in this area of your life?
How do you get wisdom from God? Let’s unpack a few texts and see if we can figure it out together.
What is God-given Wisdom?
Table of Contents
What is God-given Wisdom?
Why We Need the Wisdom of God
What Does the Bible Say About Wisdom?
How to Get Wisdom from God
1. Study God’s Word
2. Read and Meditate on His Word
3. Spend Time in Prayer
4. Apply His Precepts
What are the Signs of Wisdom?
1. Ability to hold your tongue
2. Ability to make good decisions
3. Ability to impart wisdom to others
4. Ability to lean on God in trials
5. Ability to let God fight their battles
6. Ability to get angry without sinning
All Wisdom Comes from God
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God-given wisdom, as the name suggests, is wisdom that comes from God. It is not tainted by the needs, desires, and emotions of humanity. God-given wisdom is divine wisdom; it comes from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
God-given cannot be acquired through the pursuit of earthly things or through man’s efforts since it is strictly a gift of grace. Only God is wise so only He can give us this kind of wisdom.
Why We Need the Wisdom of God
Now you may wonder, why do we need wisdom from God? Isn’t the knowledge that I have enough? Well, you see, what we know is limited. We can’t see the big picture or how one action will affect another. We can’t see how our decisions affect the people around us. God can.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:25 ESV)
God is all-knowing. He has perfect wisdom and is capable of understanding the impact of every single decision on every single thing. It would be like that guy in Men in Black who could see all the different futures based on the choices each person made.
But God’s wisdom is so much better because He is invested in working things out for our good. He desires to use His wisdom to draw us closer to Him.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33 ESV)
What Does the Bible Say About Wisdom?
Whenever anyone thinks about what the Bible says about God giving wisdom, the verse that comes to mind is probably James 1:5,
if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you (NIV).
The author seemed to think that not only was God willing to give wisdom to anyone who asks, but He would also give wisdom generously. James understood that wisdom was something to be sought after. In his letter to the church, he took the time to explain the difference between the two types of wisdom.
he Bible has a lot more to say about wisdom but we want to focus on what the Bible says about godly wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7 ESV)
Understanding who God is and giving Him the respect due to Him is where wisdom and knowledge begin. When we choose to turn away from that fact, the Bible considers us foolish. Just think about it, why would you choose to depend on your own understanding when you have access to knowledge that exceeds the greatest supercomputer that has ever been or ever will be created?
(God is much more than a supercomputer. He is our Creator and sustainer. He is the giver of all life and deserves all our praise. But I thought to imagine a human being trying to outsmart a supercomputer would give you an inkling of what it must be like when we choose to ignore the wisdom that God offers.)
For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; (Proverbs 2:6 ESV)
But here’s the beautiful thing, God gives wisdom. He’s willing to give us access to His secret files (sorry, the supercomputer idea is stuck in my head) if only we’d be willing to trust Him.
How to Get Wisdom from God
Now that you understand why wisdom is important in life, let’s talk about how we acquire wisdom. We’ve already alluded to one of the ways–we can ask the Lord to give us wisdom, but let’s look at four specific things we can do to access the knowledge and understanding that comes from God.
1. Study God’s Word
As children of God, we are called to read and study the Bible. The Bible is God’s instruction manual for humanity and we’ve already determined that God is wise. If we lack wisdom and want to become a wise person, we have to become familiar with what God has written for us to learn about His character and ours.
You would be surprised at what you can learn by studying the Bible. You can learn how to be a better parent, how to treat your spouse, anger management, and how to have a positive self-image to name a few.
2. Read and Meditate on His Word
After we spend time in the Word, we don’t just close our Bibles and forget about what we read until our next quiet time with God. Oh no! We need to meditate on what we had read or what we understood from the Bible.
As we spend time thinking about what we learned, God is able to use his words to impart wisdom to us.